Recessed lighting systems are well known. Such systems provide a light source from behind the surface or a wall or ceiling, and therefore do not protrude into the room to any great degree but instead locate the light components in space behind the wall or ceiling.
Such systems are desirable for a variety of reasons, one significant one being that they do not visually intrude significantly into the appearance of the room and therefore may readily blend with almost any decor. Notwithstanding this, many recessed lights are far from being hidden from notice.
For example, many recessed lighting fixtures include a frame, a reflector, a junction box and structure for attaching the frame to the ceiling. The junction box is typically required by code, and is an enclosure mounted on the frame that functions as a receptacle for joining the wires from an electrical power source and a lamp socket in the reflector. The frame is suitably mounted to the ceiling (e.g., by a barbed insert that can be nailed into a wooden beam in the ceiling) and includes an opening through which the reflector is inserted to direct light to an area below the lighting fixture (e.g., down at an angle away from the lighting fixture or down from the lighting fixture). Different mechanisms have been used to retain the reflector in the frame. For example, the reflector may have an opening with a circumference that is larger than the opening in the frame. In such a configuration, the reflector sits on the top surface of the frame and surrounds the opening with a trim ring that is readily visible to anyone in the room. Further, the reflector visible through the wall or ceiling opening will often be silver or some other color which may functionally reflect light but will also provide an obvious visible contrast with the wall or ceiling around it.
A recessed lighting fixture of the above general type is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,723
Another reason is that recessed lighting systems are desirable is that they may provide more indirect lighting, thereby reducing the glare from the light source (e.g., an incandescent lamp). However, in many such systems, the lights are often still readily visible from many different positions in the room and, particularly given the brightness of spotlights often used in such systems, can cause a person who happens to look into the fixture discomfort and some disorientation due to closing of their irises and therefore insufficient dilation of their irises when they look away from the light.
In short, while recessed lighting systems provide many different types of advantages, those long desired advantages still have not been fully provided.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.